Tuani Carla Gentil

Alumni

In the context of renewable energy sources, fuel cells are highlighted. These devices can convert chemical energy into electrical energy and allow the direct use of liquid fuels such as ethanol, the most common among the studies in the green electrocatalysis area, as well as other small organic molecules like acetol, which has been studied in the field of green catalysis and energy and can be obtained from the dehydration of glycerol. One of the challenges is to develop an electrocatalyst with high activity to catalyze the oxidation reaction of fuels, with high stability and efficiency in operation.

The goal of my BEPE fellowship is to evaluate the dissolution of electrocatalysts based on Pd, Sn, Nb, and Fe, destined for the anode of alkaline direct liquid cells, as this is one of the main factors affecting the life cycle of a fuel cell. For that, accelerated stress tests will be performed using a rotating disk electrode (RDE) to evaluate the dissolution of metals, which will be investigated quantitatively using an electrochemical scanning flow cell (SFC) coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (On-line ICP-MS), allowing the determination of dissolution products with low degradation rates. This is new for alkaline liquid fuel cells, and it is expected that this research will contribute to a better understanding of these materials in fuel cells operating conditions.